There will be a Tea Party to welcome all the new members who joined MACS during the past two years:
Eliza Chan, Norm Davidson, Clayton Dyck, Margaret Elyk, Debbie Guo, Wade Koll, Raymond Lau, Sue Mah, Hua Mok, Susan Holmes Nash, Noelle Rosethal, Margaret Lau, Xiao-Yan Chang, Frank Zhu.

Tea Party:
Date: February 18, Saturday
Time: 7:00 ¨C 9:00 PM
ocation: 744 Jackson Ave.

Old and new members and friends of the Academy are welcome to attend!

1. Time and Location
   A. February 25, 9:30 -12:00 Noon. Room 46
   Senior Group: Grades 5 & up (including the Adult A & B classes)
   B. March 4, Saturday 9:30 -12:00 Noon. ROOM 46.
   Junior Group: Grades K ¨C Grade 4.
   
   
2. The content of the speech will be determined by the classroom teacher. The length of the speech should not be over 3 minutes.
   
   
3. The participant will be judged on the correct pronunciation, the clarity and the grace.
   
   
4. The number of award winners will depend on the size of the participants in each class on that day. There will be one winner from a group of 1- 5 participants, two from 6 - 10 participants, 3 from 11 - 15 participants and so on.
   
   
5. The winners from each group that obtain the highest aggregate marks will be awarded with a special memorial award donated by the Tan family in loving memory of Mrs. Lucy Tan who was a dedicated judge for many years in the past. Besides receiving an individual trophy, the winners¡¯ names will be on the Plague with MACS.
   
6. The results of the Contest will be published in the April newsletter. Awards will be distributed at the School¡¯s annual year end Closing Ceremony on June 10. All the parents and friends are welcome to come and give support to the participants!

The Holiday Concert organized by the MACS Choir was held on December 29th at the Epiphany Church. Despite the short period of time we had for the preparation, with the cooperative effort of the MACS Choir members, the concert went on with great success. The audience was totally delighted with the performances by soprano Xin Wang, piano virtuosos Jana Ting, Roselle Wu and Yunqiao Wang. Xin Wang was a former teacher of MACS whereas Roselle and Jana are MACS alumni. Yunqiao is currently our Choir¡¯s accompanist. The MACS Choir and the Academy is really proud of their great performances and appreciate their contribution to the event.

The Holiday Concert, as announced in the last issue of the newsletter, was a fundraising event to help the student choir members to join the MACS Choir to participate in the UNISONG Choral Festival in Ottawa this summer. UNISONG festival is an integral part the activities scheduled for the celebration of Canada Day. Many generous donations were received from the Holiday Concert. The list of donors will be acknowledged in the local Chinese newspaper soon.

The Choir has been successful in getting most of the members committed to the UNISONG Choral Festival in Ottawa during the Canada Day Celebration.
The event will be another milestone achievement of our choir and we have wasted no time in getting our second term practices underway.

The Choir will be coming back to the MACS Chinese School on January 28th for the celebration of the Year of the Dog. We look forward to meeting you then.

We will also be performing at the Southland Church in the evening on January 28th to join the New Year Celebration at the church there.

As you all know, the MACS Chinese New Year Banquet will be held at Kum Koon Restaurant on February 3rd ,2006. Again, many members of the MACS Choir are involved in organizing and promoting the event. Hope I will see you there.

On behalf of everyone in our choir, we wish you a very Happy New Year.

Terence Wu
Macs Choir Director